Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Ware Stories
Here are five lessons learned the hard way from a major technology project.
In his recent two-part article on a major technology project that never quite delivered what it promised, Daniel Starr confronted some tough questions:How had the project fallen so short of its promises? What could be done now, given the company's dependence on this project? How could we prevent such problems in future projects? In the process of searching for the answers, Starr learned some important lessons about human nature, the delicate negotiation surrounding requirements, and the importance of geometry and geography in determining what a project ends up building.He summarized those lessons as such:
One, the official end of the requirements process doesn't mean the end of requirements conflicts and the need to resolve them. A wise project manager (and a wise team) will watch for late-blooming conflicts (as well as missing or unnecessary requirements), and make sure they're dealt with appropriately, according to the project's priorities — even if it means bringing things to a halt.
Two, when a project's mission is to make something that's "just like this existing thing, except for this one attribute," it's crucial that everyone be really certain they agree about the meaning of words — especially words that define the concept of "just like."
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